West Seattle funeral home moving to make way for big apartment project

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include information in the project's recently filed application to the city for a master-use permit.

An apartment developer on Thursday paid nearly $17.9 million for a large West Seattle property, including the Howden-Kennedy Funeral Home.

The acquisition by Lennar Multifamily Investors means Howden-Kennedy, West Seattle’s oldest funeral home, will have to move.

“We’re definitely staying in business, and we definitely will be staying in West Seattle,” said Stuart Johnston, Howden-Kennedy’s office manager. He said the owners are looking for a new location because “we’ve got to be out by Sept. 1.”

Lennar paid Kennedy Family Limited Partnership nearly $5 million for the funeral home property, and paid $12.9 million to Huling Brothers for property where the Huling car dealership used to operate, public records show. In total, Lennar bought just over two and a third acres, where the company will work with Weingarten Realty to build a 370-unit apartment building with a large retail space.

Lennar is a national homebuilder that branched out into apartments last year, and Weingarten specializes in shopping centers.

Earlier this month, the developer applied to the city for a master-use permit to develop two, five-story buildings with a total of 370 residential units over 62,750 square feet and two levels of below-grade parking for 598 vehicles.

The developer will need to get the city to vacate an alley, and will have to go through the city's design review process. Steve Sears of Fuller Sears Architects of Seattle is listed as the contact on the developer's application.

The Lennar-Weingarten project is at 4755 Fauntleroy Way S.W. The site takes up most of the block between Fauntleroy Way and 40th Avenue southwest and Southwest Edmunds and Alaska streets. That’s about three blocks southwest of the main entry to the neighborhood, where traffic comes off of the West Seattle Bridge.

That area is changing. King County Metro has started operating its RapidRide bus service from West Seattle to downtown, and developers are building apartments in and around where the Huling dealership operated.

The new apartments are filling up. Harbor Urban, for instance, recently completed Nova, a 62-unit project at 4600 36th Ave. S.W. Harbor Urban representatives said nearly three-quarters of the units have been leased.